A lot of people start blogging or come back to blogging at the start of the year. The first few months of the year generally will have a lot of new blogs popping up. And that’s why I thought I would create a guide to blogging to help out anyone that may be new here or perhaps just struggling to find their place on this platform. Of course, I can’t share every single thing you need to know about blogging in just one post because there’s so much. But with this ultimate guide to blogging, I’ve tried to add as many things as I could that I feel are vital for bloggers to know whether they are new or more seasoned bloggers.
So, without further ado, here is my ultimate guide to blogging and things bloggers should know:
Love What You Do
I think the most important thing when it comes to blogging, at least if you plan to do it longterm, is that you need to love what you do. If you’re just posting for the sake of gaining followers, making an income etc, you won’t be able to post consistently. Because your blog takes time to grow and people want to read/interact with content that is created with love and passion.
Regardless of why you started blogging, try to share content that you want to share. That makes you happy to share. Otherwise, when you don’t see instant results you’re going to start losing your motivation to post regularly. You’re going to run out of content ideas too. So, if you do take up blogging make sure it’s because you enjoy it and want to share content.
Do Your Research
I wish I could scream this at everyone that asks me about blogging lol. Okay, not scream. More like tell calmly. But seriously, when it comes to blogging you need to do your research. If you pick up one time from my ultimate guide to blogging, let it be this one. Learn how to use the features that WordPress (or whatever platform you choose to blog on) provides so that you’re able to make the best of what you have. If you would like to get more views then make sure you do your research about SEO, the WordPress algorithm etc.
Research, research, research. Never start anything without your research. If I could go back in time to when I first started my blog, I would smack myself and yell research because that would save me hours of going back to old posts and trying to make them SEO friendly.
So please, do as much research as you can when it comes to blogging. It’s not as easy as people think, especially with all the changes WordPress insists on making.
Related Posts: SEO For Dummies, SEO For Dummies #2, SEO For Dummies #3, SEO For Dummies #4
Related Post: How To Increase Your On-Page SEO
It’s A Big World
It’s a big world out there, don’t expect to blow up overnight. Don’t expect to gain thousands of followers in a few days or weeks. It doesn’t work like that. Blogging is a lot of hard work, it’s a lot of effort.
Growing Your Blog
Most bloggers would like to grow their blog and see engagement on their posts. Of course, those doing it as a hobby may not care as much. And if that’s the case for you, feel free to skip this one.
But if you are hoping to grow your blog along the way there are some important things you need to know. WordPress is not like other social platforms. I think with engagement and growth, it’s a two way street. You have to engage with other bloggers if you want them to engage with you. But unlike social media, people here don’t appreciate spammy comments or superficial ones. People like to actually engage so make sure you’re leaving comments that talk about their content. Not just “follow me back, like my posts” type comments. This is not a good strategy to grow your blog.
You also want to make sure you’re active on your own blog, engaging with commenters. And take the time to get to know others, people here for the most part are really lovely. It’s a wonderful part of the blogging experience.
Monetising Your Blog
I know a lot of people get into blogging because they just want to share their content or they do it as a hobby. But at the same time a lot of people also do hope to monetise their blog at some point. There are a lot of ways to monetise your blog, I won’t get into all of them because I already have some posts about that. You can read all the ways I would recommend monetising your blog here.
What I will say though is that again, this isn’t going to happen overnight. And also, be careful out there. There are so many scammers all over the internet trying to take advantage of you. For example, everyone talks about affiliate marketing but most affiliate marketing programs pay hardly anything unless you get them a very large amount of traffic or sales.
Time Management
Time management is so important when it comes to blogging. Time management is really important. When people first start blogging they don’t realise how time consuming it is. And that leads to one of two things. Either they get overwhelmed and abandon their blog. Or they spend way too much time on WordPress and neglect other aspects of their life. Neither of these are healthy. If you’re a new blogger or even someone that has been blogging for a while but hasn’t figured out a balance yet, schedules are your best friend. Schedule posts in advance, schedule a specific amount of time that you will spend per day on here. Just schedule everything so that you have a much better balance.
Consistency And Long Term Blogging
Consistency and long term blogging don’t seem like a big deal until you’re crying on your bathroom floor because you’ve run our of ideas for blog posts but don’t want to abandon your blog but also are too busy to spend much time on their. And the walls feel like they’re closing in and you’re overwhelmed beyond what you thought possible. That’s just a totally random example of the top of my head though, definitely didn’t happen to me a few years back.
Anyway, back to the point. Consistency is the only thing that will keep your blog growing and getting a good amount of engagement. Now, I’m not saying you have to post daily with no exceptions. It’s okay to take breaks once in a while. But as much as you can, try to post regularly. Whether it’s once a day, once a week, once a month or whatever. Just make sure you post regularly, not at random times because people need to know when to check your blog for new posts. If you post randomly and take long breaks, people will just assume you stopped blogging (which to be fair happens a lot) and will stop checking your blog.
Also, if you do take a break don’t just jump ship with no explanation. Post something that lets your readers and anyone who comes across your blog know that you’re taking a break. If possible, mention when you’ll be posting again so they know when to come back.
Legal And Ethical Considerations
This is just an FYI for anyone that may be unfamiliar. You don’t have to be ethical or even a good person if you don’t want to. We all have free will. However, unlike social media platforms WordPress is very much a close-knit community. For the most part, you won’t find hateful trolls or hateful posts on here. Although I am seeing a lot more than a few years ago. But still a lot less than social media. So again, you don’t have to be nice but it would bode well for you if you were. And try to keep in mind, the internet is forever. So you know, just don’t be an eggplant emoji for no reason.
When it comes to legal stuff, there’s obviously a lot of no-no’s. I’ve seen people literally copy paste other bloggers post. That’s literally plagiarism and can get your post taken down or even your blog taken down if you don’t stop. Don’t use content without permission, if you use images etc make sure to credit the source. You can read more about the legal side of blogging here.
Final Thoughts On The Ultimate Guide To Blogging
That is my ultimate guide to blogging. I hope these tips were helpful. Let me know your thoughts about them in the comments below. And if you feel I missed anything do feel free to share that in the comments too. Or simply stop by and say hi!
Want to grow your blog but don’t have the time, resources or energy? Check out my services and hire me to grow it for you! Click here to view my services.
For more blogging advice posts click here.
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